Gaining a family
by wimsicalpan
Summary: This is what happened on the day Helen brought Henry to the Sanctuary all those years ago and how he gained a family and a home.


He didn't know what he was going to see.

Didn't know what was waiting for him as he took Helen Magnus' hand.

Blue eyes scoured the inside of the vehicle and he sniffed at the upholstery in side. He felt the fabrics, the materials and let his fingers run over the many components that were attached in many places. Then his gaze turned back to face the place from which he was born. Watching through the rear window, he watched the moors shrink into tiny green specks on the horizon.

Another minute and Magnus turned the corner; the moors completely gone from view and a new sight stealing his furtive gaze. His mouth dropped open as the buildings first appeared before them. He propped himself up onto his knees and pressed his hands against the front of the car to try to get a closer look outside of the window.

A small chuckle to his left entered one ear and left the other.

He was too amazed by the sights coming up to him. Too in awe to speak as he watched tall grey buildings begin to loom next to them; streaking past. People streaked past in various colours, not paying him nor the car they were in any attention.

The window was rolled down ever so slightly and a mouth watering odour had filled the air he was breathing. He wrinkled his nose, trying to capture the smell and place it. Couldn't quite. "What's that?" he asked, voice timid and eyes scanning the window, trying to find the source of it.

Another small laugh made him turn his head and tilt it to the side, eyes crinkled together; confused. "Are you hungry?"

He nodded, felt his stomach about to growl and tried to smile as this strange woman pulled the car over and told him to stay. Another nod and he let his eyes follow her path out of the car and into a store that was bright in colour and held many occupants. A sniff told him that an assortment of strange hot foods were coming from that building.

A few passer-by's peered into the car in the time that Helen was gone and he'd shrunk back, trying to hide behind the seat. These people that surrounded him wore bright colours and talked with words he couldn't understand.

He felt a pang of relieve flood his system when Helen returned, a large brown paper bag in hand and two large paper cups balanced in the other. She handed him the bag and one of the cups; "Here. Your first McDonalds experience I bet."

Suspiciously he invested the contents of the bag. Back on the moors, they'd never gotten food like this; always having to hunt and gather. It was safer that way he'd been told. Hot smells filled the bag and he pulled out a thin warm golden stick. He licked it before taking a small bite. After summoning that it was safe to it and tasty, he quickly set to work eating the rest of what Helen called 'Fries' There was two bags of them and three hamburgers she had said.

By the time he'd finished everything in the bag and one of the drinks - Coke, he was full and satisfied, and they'd stopped outside of another shop. Helen made a quick stop, told him to wait again, and a few minutes later she returned with a comb, toothbrush and toothpaste. He spent the next five minutes letting Helen tug and pull on the knots in his hair, trying to loosen them out into neat curls.

The next time he looked in the mirror his hair was flattened against his cheeks somewhat and he did look a little neater. "We should really be getting you some clothes, how does that sound?" He shrugged his shoulders. "You will need to come with me into the store however."

"Oh," he said. Seeing this new world was breath taking. But seeing it and being out in it were two different things. He knew that nobody would understand him and where he came from, how he grew up like Helen Magnus did.

She didn't care. In fact, she threw a blind eye to it all and from what he's seen so far, knew that she would care for him no matter what. A smile wormed it's way onto his face at that thought and he brought his blue eyes up to meet with another set of warm blue eyes. "Okay."

He stayed close to the woman as a bell rang above their heads when the door opened. Stayed close to her as she ran her hands across shirts, shoes, socks, underwear and pants. Stayed close, almost clutching his arm around her thighs as she talked to the owner of the clothes store; a man in his forties looking a little less then friendly.

The man was apparently going to take a few measurements so that they could get his size so that he didn't have to try on lots of clothes that didn't fit.

It was an agonizing hour later when they left the store and he was tugging at the collar of a navy blue t-shirt, the picture of a car on the front. It was itching at his neck. So were the socks and the jeans felt odd and slightly discomforting.

On the long journey back to the Sanctuary, Helen has asked him for his name. He'd shrugged his shoulder and muttered "Foss," barely loud enough for her to hear.

"Foss? Is that your first name?" He nodded meekly, clearly hearing the bewilderment in the older woman's voice.

"What I was called."

"Okay, Foss," she said. It was ten minutes of silence before she slowed the car down and pulled it over to the side of the road. "I've been thinking." He turned his head up to her and wrinkled his nose. Another new smell was in the air; smellier and dirtier then before. "Where I work, people such as you and I have two names; a forename and a surname. Now, Foss sounds like a surname, your second name. What we need is a first name, that's, if you'd like one."

He turned his eyes to the window and looked up to the sky. A few white clouds filled the blue area and he nodded. Foss didn't sound as sensible as 'Helen' or 'Ashley', her daughter she had told him about. Didn't quite sound right.

"Okay," Helen said. "How about… Thomas? Thomas Foss?" He scrunched his nose up and shook his head. "Elliot Foss?" Another shake. "Hmm." Her eyes fell on him, scrutinising and analysing him. Assessing him. It made him uncomfortable how much she just stared at him silently. Her lips moved, and he heard whispers of names being tested on her mouth. "Ah, how about Henry. Henry Foss?"

That didn't sound too bad and he felt his own mouth move to the name, testing it on his own tongue. "Henry, Henry Foss. Henry Foss." A smile started to form. It felt natural, like a real name. He liked it. "Yeah. Henry Foss."

"Well Henry, let's get you to Sanctuary, to your new home shall we?" He nodded.

It took another hour to get to the Sanctuary, the most amazing building he'd seen by far. It didn't look new, didn't look made for simple menial things, but looked like it was built for a purpose, it had meaning. He followed, three paces behind Helen, and let his eyes slowly marvel at the sights before him.

It was beautiful, magnificent, overwhelming, brilliant, breath taking. He reminded himself to breathe and shook his head, running to meet Helen at the large front doors. They'd stopped on the way to get him a haircut and it felt weird to have such short hair.

Helen told him he'd get used to it. He wasn't too sure.

The inside of the Sanctuary was just as amazing as the outside and he twirled in circles, trying to take everything in at once without shorting out his brain in the process.

Tiny footsteps echoed, quickly racing and getting louder as they got nearer and he found his eyes landing on a young girl, a few years younger then his nine year old self. Her blonde hair was pulled up into plaits that bounced on either side of her face and her yellow top and pink shorts were as bright as her face when her blue eyes, matching Helen's, rested on the woman's. "Mom!"

"Hey sweetie." The girl's arms flew around the woman's legs and she buried her face in her thighs.

"I missed you."

"I wasn't gone long."

She turned her face up, "Yeah but I missed you."

"Ashley." Helen's eyes came to rest on him and he shuffled his feet and looked at the ground. "Ashley I want you to meet Henry." A hand pulled his eyes up and he peered up at Helen, a little worried that maybe Ashley wouldn't like him as much as Helen had, or that perhaps Helen wouldn't like him as much as she clearly did Ashley. "Henry, this is Ashley."

His eyes turned to look at Ashley and the girl stood, hands behind her back staring at him with curiosity. A shrug of his shoulders made her swing an arm out, "Hey."

"Oh, hi."

He placed his hand in hers and she shook it, a smile crossing her features. He felt a smile cross his face and it broke out into a grin as Ashley asked, "You wanna play tag with the Big guy? You'll like him."

A questioning glance up to Helen and an encouraging nod sent him following her down the halls. The Big guy did scare him at first, but over time he came to see him as a friend, a brother and over time he learnt the secrets in the basement as Ashley called them; the other Abnormals that normal guests were not allowed to see.

It was when he was nearing his eleventh birthday and he'd fallen out of one of trees in the small garden areas, seriously injuring his left arm that any thoughts on how Helen thought of him dissipated. Tears rolling down his cheeks, Ashley running and shouting "Mom! Mom! Henry's hurt!" he felt his arm throb uncontrollably.

He was scooped up a few minutes later by the Big guy and carried down into the infirmary where Helen tried to calm his whimpers of pain every time his arm was moved. "Shh, shh, Henry, you'll be okay."

"It hurts," he choked out.

"Is he going to be okay?"

Helen smiled and wrapped an arm around his good shoulder after a quick and painful examination, "He'll be fine, won't you son? It's nothing more then a scratch that we can fix up in a minute."

He sniffled and looked up at her. "You sure?"

"Positive." She squeezed his shoulders, rubbed away his tears and quickly set to work putting bright blue plasters on the cuts he'd gathered on his arm. When she was done, she picked up his arm and kissed every single sore spot. "There, that'll make it all better."

Henry smiled and jumped off the cot and swung his arms around her waist. "Thanks Mom."


End file.
